


starlight recollection

by Molnija



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: ... the apocalypse ..., Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Iwadai Week 2017, M/M, Reincarnation, Soulmates, i know this is weird just roll with it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-15 01:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11795160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Molnija/pseuds/Molnija
Summary: in which Sawamura Daichi meets a boy he just cannot forget and accidentally sets off the apocalypse.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hold on, a fandom week is going on and I'm actually doing something for it rather than reblogging the post, entirely forgetting about it, and only remembering when it's on the last day already? I know I can't believe it either
> 
> this is going to be an ongoing story with short chapters rather than a few unconnected oneshots like I'd usually do for a week! I hope I'll get it done on time but I won't promise anything ... I should have started earlier with this rip
> 
> the setting and stuff of this are kinda weird so I hope it's not too jarring, haha ^-^)" also the saga of Nija Using Space References In Everything continues. I mulled for so long over the title (again: decide on a title before you write the story rather than whatever the hell I'm doing) but at least it sounds nice, I guess ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no prompt faithfulness we die like men
> 
> this is so. ominous. I guess that's what multichapter fics are for though. I actually like this style-wise a lot, it sounds so poetic ... it almost makes you think I didn't just slam my head onto my keyboard repeatedly in a severe case of "I KNOW WHAT I WANNA DO BUT HOW DO I DO IT"
> 
> also my laptop crashed while I was writing this, had Word not miraculously saved it I would have given up ... it looks like the fate of this story is to be published though!

you saw him standing there with stars in his eyes and a distaste for the marvellous  
(and you remember thinking that he was a contradiction in himself and whomever made him this way must have power beyond your understanding.)

 

* * *

 

**DAY I – MORNINGS**

 

* * *

 

On a cold Sunday morning, down by the river near the animal shelter, Sawamura Daichi saw an angel.

He could tell by the halo around his head and the white wings at his back, but even without them he would have stopped and stared at a creature so beautiful the world had fallen silent around him, with only the wind even daring to quietly howl.

The wind, too, was what carried the crumbled leaves of autumn away and led the angel’s gaze to follow, until his eyes met Daichi’s and the illusion fell away.

Halation turned to mere illumination from the rising sun behind him, wings turned to a sports jacket hastily thrown over his shoulders, and the gentle expression painted on his profile when he had been studying the sky turned cold and achingly silent.

(Despite everything, Daichi still thought he was beautiful.)

“Uh,” he stumbled, his mind empty and his tongue not feeling right in his mouth. “Good morning.”

Stillness was draped over them like a too-warm blanket for what felt like a millennium.

Then, quietly, “Good morning. Is something wrong?”

His voice indicated he knew exactly that Daichi had no reason to stand here gaping, but he had to admit that was only half of the truth.

“N-no, not … Not really.” Leaving would have been the sane option, and as it turned out Daichi might have lost his mind somewhere along the way. “Are you … Lost?”

A stupid question to ask, perhaps, but something in his eyes seemed like it wanted to tell him _yes_.

“I live nearby,” he said.

“Oh.”

It took a million more seconds for Daichi to break eye contact, mutter a goodbye, and hurry away with fast steps and his heart pounding against his ribcage as if begging to be released.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Asahi cocked his head, greatly resembling a Saint Bernard dog. “I’m sorry, but that could be everyone.”

Daichi knew very well that his description of the stranger by the river was lacking. He vaguely remembered him having dark, spiky hair and a muscular, if a bit short, build, but he hadn’t paid much attention to it, to be completely honest. The only things that stood out clearly to him were his otherworldly beauty and those _eyes_ , cold and hard like emeralds.

But if there was any chance of finding out who he had been, he’d take it.

It had been one day and one sleepless night, and he thought it was a bit dumb to let that person take over his thoughts to the point of having him stay up all night pondering the possibilities, but what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t seem to forget him.

“He looked like he was about our age, and he wore a sports jacket,” he tried to explain while gesticulating wildly, but Asahi only gave him an apologetic smile.

“You said that already, but I really don’t know. Maybe Suga does?”

He did have a point there – Sugawara knew everyone so he was probably Daichi’s best bet. However, Sugawara wasn’t here. Sick in bed at home, allegedly, though Daichi wouldn’t have put it beyond him to use that excuse to skip the math test all the third years were supposed to be taking today.

“If he was wearing a sports jacket,” Asahi mused, “maybe he was on his run when you met him? So you just need to come to the same place at the same time.”

Sometimes Daichi considered it a blessing that Asahi was his friend. Sugawara, while overall a wonderful person, would have teased him and pried like nobody’s business, but Asahi didn’t ask questions. Asahi just tried to help.

And maybe, just maybe, Asahi had good ideas sometimes.

 

*~*~*~*

 

He didn’t meet him by the river.

Daichi was playing with one of the dogs at the animal shelter, a small, fluffy one with seemingly never-ending energy that reminded him of Hinata, when he heard the door open and glanced at the visitor, only to freeze when he recognised him instantly.

There were a million things he wanted to say, but the one he did end up voicing was, “We’re closed.”

“I live here,” the boy said, eyes narrowed. “But I know you don’t.”

“Actually, I’ve been working part-time for—” He cut himself off upon realising what he had just said. This person, this strangely beautiful boy he thought was an angel, living at the animal shelter? That in itself wouldn’t have been all that weird, but he knew the family owning it, he saw them every time he came here before practice, and they had never mentioned someone else. “Who are you?”

The boy looked at him for a long moment. Now that they were standing closer together, Daichi could see a light scar running down his cheek – where did he get it? Some trivial accident, or something worse? “Haruyama-san has taken me in.”

“That’s no answer to my question,” he said, trying a more playful tone as he stood up, much to the dog’s dismay, who immediately started barking and ran away when it realised Daichi had better things to do. Maybe he should have stayed down, now he felt a bit bad.

“I have no reason to trust you.” The words were spoken so sincerely he almost didn’t see anything wrong with them, but only almost.

“Don’t you think that’s a bit dramatic?” He laughed awkwardly, but it did nothing to alleviate the mood. “I mean, this is nothing formal or anything, I’m just …”

His sentence faded into nothing upon seeing the boy’s eyes, pained and angry and soft and everything at once.

_Curious._

“Hajime-kun,” he heard a woman’s voice call from behind him, and when he turned around, the owner of the shelter, a woman of 60 years named Haruyama Rinko with white hair and wise eyes and a seemingly unending array of dog-themed sweaters, was watching them from the staircase leading to their apartment. “I see you’ve met Daichi-kun! He’s the one I told you about, who helps out here before and after school. I hope you’ll get along.”

Something in her voice made those simple words sound like an order rather than a wish, and the boy’s – Hajime’s? – stance relaxed significantly. Daichi hadn’t even realised how tense he had been, all drawn up shoulder and balled fists, until suddenly he wasn’t anymore, as if Rinko’s statement had had a profound impact on him.

What a strange person he was, that boy who looked like an angel.

“I’m Sawamura Daichi,” he said and tried another smile, and this time, the other smiled back.

“Iwaizumi Hajime. Nice to meet you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [dramatic music playing in the background]  
> ... am I breaking the immersion? I'm breaking the immersion aren't I. sorry


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iwa isn't as poetic as Daichi. then again I don't know how I could possibly have written this chapter in a poetic-sounding way without going purple prose-y. so it's not. bam.
> 
> it may be 10PM but I'm not late. I'm not gonna be late! ... on the second day at least ... because that would be a bit sad ... even though I was in fact almost late. but. I'm not. also there's not a lot of support in here. but juuuust enough to warrant putting the word in anyway. what do you mean, actually using prompts, that would be too easy
> 
> (fan weeks are so stressful ... also happy KagePro day to everyone who's into it, just don't get caught in a timeloop! also why do we call it KagePro day when Kagerou Day would be so much more fitting anYWAY someday I'll write a hq KagePro AU. or maybe not. maybe I just jinxed it)

sometimes the most complex things have the simplest explanation  
(and sometimes the simplest things change an entire universe in the blink of an eye.)

 

* * *

 

**DAY II – SUPPORT**

 

* * *

 

He felt a little bit bad about it.

After all, Daichi had done nothing wrong, and Hajime had been treating him very coldly, undeservedly so. When he was watching him take care of the animals or talk to customers, he could tell he was a decent person, perhaps even one that he could be friends with for his short time of being here.

At the same time, he had probably been right in being wary of everyone until they got the approval of someone he knew could be trusted. Finding the Haruyama family in the first place had been enough of a challenge as it was, and if the wrong people found out about their heritage … He didn’t even want to begin imagining what could happen.

The fate of the world was resting on his shoulders, and it was soul-crushing.

“Do you get along with the Haruyamas?” Daichi asked while tearing open a new bag of cat food. After a few days, Hajime had found it was actually quite easy to talk to him; he didn’t feel pressured to say too much, but he didn’t feel the need to stay quiet. The things they talked about were trivial, like the weather or homework or the volleyball clubs of their respective schools, the latter of which made Hajime wish he had the chance to play for his. Maybe if he’d come here early, he’d have been the captain, like Daichi.

“I do.” Not like he had any other choice. “They’re a bit weird sometimes, but they’re honest. I like them.” He smiled at the thought of their youngest, an eight year old boy, proclaiming he was going to be a superhero when he grew up, complete with messy sketches of his outfit and surrounded by dogs. Actually, this whole family seemed to have a thing for dogs – not that Hajime could blame them. One of the perks of living here was that he got to play with them whenever he was home.

“They’re good people, yes,” Daichi said and laughed, a warm, welcoming sound. “Should have sent you to Karasuno though instead of Seijoh.”

“I like Seijoh,” he responded, a bit offended. In the short time he’d been here, he’d been getting along with his classmates fairly well. In the end, whether he did or not didn’t matter though; Seijoh was the only school they had deemed safe.

 _It’s not for long_ , he told himself, feeling a bit sad about it but at the same time incredibly relieved. _One month and you’re back home._

He was going to miss his newfound friends, and Daichi too.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Rinko was watching him with knowing eyes.

Being observed by her could be either comfortable, secure in the knowledge that she was keeping watch over one, or very, very unnerving, and this was the latter.

She didn’t speak much, that woman. The necessary polite small talk, yes, but other than that, she kept quiet, which in itself only served to throw him off. She wouldn’t tell him what was wrong, because she wanted him to find out for himself, most likely.

Lately, Hajime felt that her gazes were the most intense when he was talking to Daichi.

He was petting a big, brown, furry dog called Poka that was sleeping on the couch next to him, with the television playing some sappy soap opera he wasn’t paying attention to when she finally spoke.

“You should never have come here.”

He knew exactly what she was implying and hated every second of it.

“Nothing is happening. That’s the whole reason I’m here.” Just because he was getting along with someone didn’t mean he was endangering them.

Rinko stayed silent, shook her head, and left him alone in the room with Poka and the lingering feeling that something was about to go very wrong.

 

*~*~*~*

 

It happened quietly, after the sun had set and the shelter had long been closed for visitors.

“Can you hold this for a second?” Daichi asked and held out a wavy cat toy for Hajime to hold onto so that he could lift a heavy box off the counter.

“What, too much weight for you to handle?” Hajime teased but reached out for it anyway. It was a feathery little thing that he was surprised hadn’t been torn apart by a cat yet; it must have been more durable than it looked.

When he got a hold of it, their fingers brushed ever so slightly – a spark flew, setting fire to his skin and sending white heat rushing through his bloodstream,

and the world went up in flames.

The last thing he heard in the split-second he had before everything fell apart was a scream, desperately clinging to the world until

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no, I did not forget to finish that sentence. it'll all make sense soon. ~


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'M NOT LATE I'M NOT LATE IT'S 23:52 BUT I'M NOT LATE
> 
> this chapter is extraordinarily ... short. but I didn't wanna pad it out too much and since I'm switching perspectives with the chapters, there wasn't really much else to say ... also the strength to be alive when you're not actually supposed to be is pretty damn strong if you ask me. am I just fishing for things to connect to the prompt? ... perhaps
> 
> aNYWAY I GOTTA POST THIS QUICKLY BEFORE THE DAY ENDS NVM ME

waking up has never been this easy  
(you write a love poem for the unknown and wonder if maybe, you were wrong for believing in fate.)

 

* * *

 

**DAY III – STRENGTH**

 

* * *

 

The sea was calm today.

It lay before him like a blanket draped over the world, moving gently with the soft wind, and far away he could see a lonely island, so small it looked as if he could pick it up and carry it around just like that. Someday, he thought, he’d like to go there, see what kind of things there are to see at a place that looks so secluded, yet so easy to reach out to.

He spent a long time staring at the sea because he didn’t dare look back.

(Ash was raining from the cloudless skies, lingering on his skin before melting like snowdrops.)

When he closed his eyes, he saw a place he’d never been to before, and its ground crumbled into nothing when he touched it, though the hand he saw was not his. He didn’t know whom it belonged to, but they felt strangely familiar, a last warm breeze in the wake of autumn, before the rain started to come and he spent the rest of the month inside, wrapped in blankets reading a good book.

Someone inside him whispered, _You shouldn’t be alive._

 _But I am, so suck it_ , he hissed back.

If he shouldn’t have been alive, then something must have gone wrong – or maybe they had just underestimated his strength. Perhaps he was living out of spite alone, but he was living.

(At the same time, was it really living when he was too scared to turn around and face what was calling him?)

None of that mattered. It never had. He didn’t know anything, the only thing in his mid was a name, one he’d taken for himself just to have something to cling to. If he was being completely honest, it didn’t sound right – _Iwaizumi Hajime_. A name like that couldn’t be his own. Maybe there was someone out there carrying that name who had once been important to him, and that was why he hadn’t forgotten it, much like those memories that were more of feelings than anything clear.

 _Iwaizumi Hajime_ , that name was a feeling along them.

Who was that person?

Whenever he thought of them, the burn marks spreading across his arms hurt, and over time he’d grown comfortable with the pain. He didn’t hate it, really. It made him feel alive.

If time was something one could track, he’d lost his capability to.

Hajime kept waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's not getting much more cryptic than this. so many unanswered questions, but what fun would it be if I answered them all already? :3c


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, NOW I'm late. probably not in other timezones. but in mine. but it's still 2:40AM so I'm not THAT late.
> 
> it ... counts as nature when there's a flower mentioned right ... look I'm just pretending to follow the prompts at this point. though admittedly next chapter will actually have something to do with tomorrow's uh I mean today's prompt.
> 
> answers? in MY fic? it's more likely than you think
> 
> Daichi: [really melodramatic internal monologue with pretty imagery and stuff like that]  
> Iwa: well fuck this shit

occasionally, a star falls on the sky, and then another, and another  
(until none are left and the heavens are black and the only light to guide you is the person you don’t deserve.)

* * *

 

**DAY IV – NATURE**

 

* * *

 

He wandered on with a million questions in his head.

The most obvious one was _why did this happen_? It had gone by so quickly, without any time to prepare. Just like that, everything had been eradicated and set aflame, until it turned to the distorted reality he was walking through now, where pitch-black darkness intermingled with lifeless trees and pathways dissolving into nothing and upside-down waterfalls.

Any other person might have considered this beautiful, but Hajime happened to know what was going on.

He hadn’t found Rinko or her family yet, and the stinging pain in his arm where the burns had left their marks revealed that Daichi was also still out there somewhere, which by all accounts shouldn’t have been the case. That guy was human – about as mortal as they got, really.

A flower bloomed on the side and Hajime looked at it for a moment, considering to pluck it to have something to remind him of what used to be, but decided to let it live. Maybe it would grow bigger. Maybe it would die, just like everything and everyone else.

At this point, he was almost apathetic to it. Had he done his best to not let it happen again? Absolutely. Had he been terrified of the possibility? Definitely. But now that he was actually experiencing it, the most he felt about it was a dull sense of defeat.

It wasn’t like this had been the first time.

He remembered little of the others, but enough to know how many times it had been, or, well, he would have known had he not stopped bothering to count a while ago. It was always only this though, not what had led up to it.

Well, Hajime _knew_ what had been the cause. His teachers back home had gone over it a million times, and even the Haruyamas just wouldn’t shut up about it. It was simply that while he had heard the stories, he couldn’t remember his lives before everything fell apart, save for the one just before the next reset.

Sometimes he wondered if it was always this easy. All he’d done had been to take a fucking cat toy from Daichi and accidentally brush hands.

Well, good to know his soulmate was still alive if nothing else. Not that the reset wouldn’t change that – only a select few would remain, just like always. A clean start. Immortality was a stupid concept, Hajime thought, if it was _actual_ immortality that meant that no matter what happened, you could not die. The universe could explode around him – and honestly, this came close to it – and he’d be floating around in nothing, probably in unending pain he couldn’t do anything about.

Couldn’t he just have settled for eternal youth and immunity to bullets or something?

If nothing else, just give him a damn soulmate that was like him. It had worked for Rinko too. The whole reason this whole dilemma started over and over again was that the universe apparently found it hilarious to give him human soulmates and then hold a giant stop sign in his face that said “no, sorry, if you touch them and your souls connect that’ll throw off the balance of the world so much we’re just all gonna die and respawn after a while” like some cruel practical joke.

Even though he wasn’t the only one, it felt like the fate of the world was indeed resting on his shoulders.

Hajime didn’t know where he was going, but he thought for now it might be a good idea to look for Daichi – just to make the pain in his arms stop and to find out how much of him was still left. This crash had likely fried his brain and shattered his soul into a million pieces. Normal people would have died from that. Sawamura Daichi, as it turned out, might not have been as normal as Hajime had assumed.

It was comforting, though, knowing that the person meant to complete him was still out there somehow. He didn’t know Daichi that well – no matter how close your soul was to someone, that didn’t mean you could skip the awkward getting to know each other stage – but something about him felt _right_. If their fate had been different, he thought they would have made for a strong couple. Daichi was like … That steady rock you could cling to when the world was threatening to pull you under, and gods knew Hajime needed that rock. It didn’t get much more overwhelming than this.

He thought he heard the sea rushing nearby, but who really knew how far away it was when everything was like this?

Maybe he should head for it anyway, it still sounded relatively intact, despite the fact that the sea had been nowhere near where he’d lived.

(After all, he felt a strange pull toward it, as if somebody was calling him out there in an order he couldn’t refuse.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe things are starting to make actual sense ... in some way ...


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaand I'm officially one day (and then some) behind ... sorry, writer's block hit me like a truck. ;^; this isn't what this chapter was supposed to be but hey, at least it wanted to be written, unlike SOME things.
> 
> it ... counts as bodies when there's touching involved right ... good god that sounds wrong. or right, depending how you feel about it. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

a cemetery lies before your eyes, but you can’t consider it as bleak as others might have  
(after all, there are few things more comforting than knowing that not even death can take away the love you feel.)

 

* * *

 

**DAY V – BODIES**

 

* * *

 

He wore rugged clothes and an irresistible smile and honestly, falling for him had only been a matter of time.

That’s what Daichi thought at least. Everyone else gave him weird looks for being interested in someone so far below his social status, but he didn’t care – he was intrigued by that strange young man living on the streets, stealing to get by but never taking from those who couldn’t spare anything.

But when he reached out for him and the other took his hand for the first time, the memory faded to black.

 

*~*~*~*

 

He liked the stories he told himself while he was waiting by the ocean, although his heart ached in a feeling almost like nostalgia.

 

*~*~*~*

 

He quite literally ran into him in a crowded shopping centre, and he apologised a million times for breaking the newly bought lamp the other had been carrying in the process, but all he ever received was an invitation to talk it out over coffee, and then a new but strangely warm feeling blooming in his heart when he realised just whom he’d met here, someone bright and beautiful and someone he felt he could trust even though they’d known each other for less than a day.

A few dates later, he softly touched his cheek for the first time and he couldn’t imagine anything past that point.

 

*~*~*~*

 

It was a bit weird though. He didn’t know anything, not even his own name – _Hajime_ still sounded unbearably wrong – but somehow, he felt like he knew the boy in his fantasies. Maybe he was growing lonely after all, in a world in which he shouldn’t exist.

 

*~*~*~*

 

It didn’t last long at all – they faced each other in battle, and he saw something in his opponent’s eyes flash up almost knowingly before something pushed them together and the last thing he felt was the sudden pain of their foreheads knocking together before this story ended, too.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Maybe they were memories instead of tales. Or maybe he’d lost his mind already.

 

*~*~*~*

 

He met him at a lake, and the gaze he received was cold, but they warmed up to each other quickly, surrounded by dogs and cats and birds and all sort of other animals. Talking to him was nice, easy despite their unfortunate beginning, and he’d have said that before he knew it he’d gotten wrapped up in his world but to be honest, he’d been gone from that very first moment.

“So, uh,” the boy asked, rubbing his neck. “How’s school?”

“It’s fine,” he answered, laughing awkwardly. ( _Easy_ did not equal _smooth_ , unfortunately.) “How about you?”

“Yeah …”

They stared at each other for a long while before he snorted and threw a dog treat in the other’s direction, hitting his forehead with it and earning a pissed off glare for his laughter. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Eat it, obviously.” He thought he fit in well with the dogs, even if the cats always ran away from him. The hamsters seemed to love him too.

He stared at the bone-shaped treat for a moment before shrugging and taking a bite. “Hey, it’s not that bad,” he remarked with his mouth full. Suddenly, he wasn’t sure whether to laugh at him more or try it for himself. He _had_ always wondered how they tasted …

Later that evening, when he was cleaning up and putting everything away, he handed him a cat toy, their fingers brushed, and—

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Daichi,” someone said, voice breathless, and with one word everything clicked into place.

The burning pain. The longing. The boy in his stories.

For the first time, Daichi turned around to face someone that looked like an angel save for the burn marks raking across his arms that matched his own.

“Hajime,” he whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soulmates are a strange, strange thing, huh.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I FINALLY FINISHED IT HALLELUJAH
> 
> sorry that it took so long, this chapter just didn't wanna sit right with me so I had to fix it up a couple of times ... but in the end at least it went how I wanted it to, haha. I'm gonna post ch7 immediately after this which ... you probably already know if you're reading this A/N so uh ... ya not much to say but ... hi how are you

if time is an hourglass, you feel that this is the moment where you start drowning in sand  
(yet it’s strangely peaceful, as if the glass holding you captive is a mere breath away from shattering.)

 

* * *

 

**DAY VI – VICTORIES**

 

* * *

 

In a world that had quite literally ended, what were you supposed to do when you saw another person but run into their arms?

If nothing else, right now, nothing bad would happen if they touched each other, and the pain in Hajime’s arms had subsided now that they were together. He squeezed Daichi too tightly, both unbelieving that he was actually here and, somehow, not really surprised.

“What’s going on?” Daichi asked and his voice sounded rough around the edges, as if he hadn’t spoken in months. Then again, time didn’t exist in this place.

As much as he hated the thought, he had to let him go eventually, but only _just_ enough for both of them to have a proper conversation. Read, their noses were still almost touching and they certainly wouldn’t let go.

“Long story short? Everything died because of us.”

The black sky was proof, as was the blood-red ocean. The apocalypse sure had a hang for the dramatic – it was like his friend Oikawa had been behind it all.

(He already missed him. Maybe he could meet him again in the next life.)

Daichi’s expression was half worried, half confused. He had every right to be, obviously, since technically he shouldn’t even have been alive. He should have been eradicated like everyone else, just like always.

“I’m …” Where was he supposed to begin explaining? Everything he knew to describe it with didn’t sound right, since he’d never had to. He’d just lived like this. “Not entirely human? Kind of? I mean, I am, but I’m also … Something else? The Haruyamas too …”

He had been born as human, and reborn and reborn and reborn, and he didn’t have any kinds of magical powers or anything. But something was circulating inside him that made him different nonetheless. After all, he literally could not die – the same thing that rewrote others when the universe reset didn’t work properly for him, it seemed. Occasionally, he’d get set back a few years, get a fresh start, but he never stopped being himself.

“So that’s why,” Daichi said in a voice that indicated he had no idea what was why. “I mean, this happened when … We touched?”

That was the hardest part to explain, somehow. Telling your soulmate, who had no idea the concept was even real, that they were, in fact, your soulmate … It was like confessing to a crush, only much, much grander. “Kind of,” he ended up saying, but then decided it didn’t matter anyway. After all, as soon as the world got reset, Daichi would … Well … Best-case scenario, he’d be reborn. Worst-case scenario, he’d fade from existence entirely.

Hajime thought that at least this time he’d remember his soulmate, since he was here with him, not limited to a past life he had no real recollection of.

“The problem is …” He scratched his head, searching for the right words. “You and I, in this life … We’re … Kind of …”

(The end of the world, as it seemed, was not enough to keep him from blushing.)

“Soulmates?” Daichi finished his sentence, and Hajime nodded, only to freeze when it sank in what he had just said.

“You’re … Not supposed to know that.”

“I mean, it’s obvious, right?” He cocked his head, like that big black dog at the shelter would always do when someone was talking to him. It was incredibly adorable. “Until you came here, I didn’t even know my own name, but then I saw you and suddenly everything came back, like you were the piece of me that was missing. And you’ve been in those memories I had as well …”

_Like you were the piece of me that was missing._

If it had been any other person, he would have rolled his eyes at them, maybe punched them depending on who they were. So why did it sound so _right_?

“I just don’t understand the ‘in this life’ part. The memories definitely weren’t only from that.”

Memories? Daichi could remember his past lives, despite being completely and utterly mortal?

This timeline was a strange one.

“How … Do you mean?” Hajime asked, but he felt like he already knew the answer, as silly as it might have sounded – stupidly hopeful.

Something in Daichi’s eyes was warm and understanding, despite the confusion he had to clearly be feeling right now. “If they were what I think they were … The same thing happened a lot more times. In different places, too. I’m assuming we’ve been soulmates much more than once.”

It sounded so odd. Daichi – being reincarnated – into his soulmate – over and over again. By all accounts, it shouldn’t have made sense.

Some connections appeared to defy all logic.

What scared him the most is that he wasn’t all that surprised.

Hajime nodded slowly, trying to wrap his head around the situation. All of a sudden, Daichi seemed to know more than him, but he didn’t really mind it. It had been a while since he’d last felt this … Secure.

They were silent for a long while, hands still resting on each other’s arms, still looking into each other’s eyes trying to make sense of a senseless situation.

One question remained.

“Why are you here?”

“Maybe it’s different this time around,” Daichi said, shrugged, and laughed, a deep, pleasant sound like music to his ears. What he’d said was so absurd, though – these things never changed.

(Except this time, they had.)

(And this time, it felt like it didn’t really matter.)

(He’d always remember Daichi now, and he’d always remember knowing that they belonged together.)

(A small victory, but a victory nonetheless.)

Eventually, they let go, only to sit down together and talk while staring at the unchanging red ocean. They discussed what they hoped the next life would be like – maybe Daichi could be reborn as someone who was like Hajime, and if not, he should at least be made to inherit his own candy imperium à la Willy Wonka, except with dogs running around and Hajime as his trusty assistant slash candy tester.

Despite everything, it felt like the most normal conversation they’d had so far.

And when everything fell apart, Hajime’s head was resting on Daichi’s shoulder, closing his eyes until the numbness enveloped him and the end itself

ended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the end of the end has to be a beginning. it only makes sense, something these two would know nothing about this time.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and there we go! this was the second chapter I wrote, for pretty obvious reasons, so at least you didn't have to wait for this one, ha.
> 
> Iwadai week is over at this point, I figured I wouldn't make it on time but I didn't expect to be THIS late ... ah well, it's finished now, and I'm actually quite happy with the final product, so! o/ it's been a while since I last participated in a fanfic week (actually, that was Petruo week back in 2014), so it's not like I'm used to it, haha. I'm glad it was Iwadai though, it is one of my hq!! otps after all! ♥
> 
> anyway I hope you had fun reading this weird thing, I know that despite everything I had fun writing it. and with that ... Nija out! °^°

you saw him standing there with stars in his eyes and a distaste for the marvellous  
(and you remember thinking that he was a contradiction in itself and whomever made him this way must have power beyond your understanding.)

 

* * *

 

**DAY VII – HOME**

 

* * *

 

On a cold Sunday morning, down by the river near the animal shelter, Sawamura Daichi sees an angel.

He can tell by the halo around his head and the white wings at his back, but even without them he would have stopped and stared at a creature so beautiful the world has fallen silent around him, with only the wind even daring to quietly howl.

The wind, too, is what carries the crumbled leaves of autumn away and leads the angel’s gaze to follow, until his eyes meet Daichi’s and the illusion falls away.

Halation turns to mere illumination from the rising sun behind him, wings turns to a sports jacket hastily thrown over his shoulders, and the gentle expression painted on his profile when he was studying the sky turns cold and achingly silent.

(Despite everything, Daichi still thinks he is beautiful.)

“Uh,” he stumbles, his mind empty and his tongue not feeling right in his mouth. “Good morning.”

Stillness is draped over them like a too-warm blanket for what feels like a millennium.

Then, quietly, “Good morning. Is something wrong?”

His voice indicates he knew exactly that Daichi has no reason to stand here gaping, but he has to admit that is only half of the truth.

“N-no, not … Not really.” Leaving be the sane option, and as it turned out Daichi might have lost his mind somewhere along the way. “Are you … Lost?”

A stupid question to ask, perhaps, but something in his eyes seemed like it wanted to tell him _yes_.

“I live nearby,” he says.

“Oh.”

It takes a million more seconds for Daichi to break eye contact, mutter a goodbye, and hurry away with fast steps and his heart pounding against his ribcage as if begging to be released—

“Wait!”

He stops in his tracks, staring straight down the road but feeling the boy’s eyes on his back, and he doesn’t dare turn around, because something inside him is acting up in ways he’s never felt before but that still seem so, so familiar.

“What’s your name?”

“Sawamura Daichi,” he answers without meaning to.

“Daichi,” the boy repeats, and something about the sound of it has him gasp quietly, grasping at memories he knows aren’t there. “I’m Iwaizumi Hajime.”

A name he has never heard before, yet incredibly familiar, as if calling him to a place that shouldn’t exist, and something makes him turn around and, awkwardly and incredulously, hold out his hand for him to shake. It’s like he has to convince himself of something, perhaps that this is really happening instead of him dreaming it all up, or maybe it’s something greater he doesn’t quite understand yet.

Iwaizumi looks at his outstretched hand for a long confused moment, so long he almost pulls it back and makes a run for it, but eventually, he takes it. His hand feels warm, rough, and strangely like it belongs in his.

He knows, without a trace of doubt, that this is the beginning of something beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading and have a great Iwadai week! or, well, whenever you're reading this. just have a great week.
> 
> tumblr: akaashi-tooru.tumblr.com/ come yell with me!


End file.
